The present invention relates to the field of vehicles equipped with a heat engine or internal-combustion engine, more particularly to the various cooling and heating functions carried out in these vehicles and concerns a cooling unit or device for such a vehicle.
At present, the various components and exchangers used in thermal exchanges in such a vehicle are generally distributed over a plurality of points round the engine and interconnected by a plurality of distinct circulating circuits, necessitating very long conduits and therefore high production and installation costs and significant losses of load.
Furthermore, this distribution of these various constituent components leads to high thermal inertia of the system and therefore long reaction times and the obligation to use a large quantity of coolant.
Moreover, the coolant is generally circulated by a pump which is driven mechanically by the heat engine and is optionally connected to regulating valves, all-or-nothing valves or the like, the flow rate thus depending directly on the engine speed and not allowing anticipation in terms of heat management or decoupled operation of said engine.
Furthermore, existing cooling systems depending directly on the engine parameters have to be designed as a function of the most punitive vehicle/engine couple.
The object of the present invention is, in particular, to overcome at least some of the aforementioned drawbacks.
For this purpose, it relates to a water-type cooling unit for a vehicle equipped with an internal-combustion engine, the unit being connected via a main circulation loop formed by appropriate conduits, in particular to at least one radiator for cooling the water or the similar coolant and to the circuits for cooling the cylinder block and the cylinder heads, characterised in that it comprises a central module in the form of a body made of thermoplastic material in which there are, in particular, mounted or partially moulded a water-circulating pump and a flow-regulating valve disposed in the circulating loop, preferably between the aforementioned cooling circuits and the radiator.